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Thursday, 21 June 2012

This card was inspired by the new Sportsmen Stamps by Stamp Addicts, this one being of a cricketer and my desire to use my full set of Distress Markers as soon as possible.

Firstly I used the swiss dots embossing folder and my cuttlebug to emboss my cream card and a Crop A Dile Corner Chomper to add the decorative corners. The embossed dots were brought to the fore using Old Paper distress ink lightly buffed over it.

The second layer was a flourish embossing folder put through the cuttlebug on Kraft card and tinted using Tea Dye distress ink buffed over it and more corner chomping.

Finally the main image was created on watercolour paper for both texture and to enable me to blend the distress markers with water. I stamped the character using Archival black ink as I would be using water and commenced colouring the image with a variety of the neutral distress shades (apologies I forgot to note the ones I used on this occassion but I believe it was Antique Linen, Old Paper, Tea Dye and Vintage Photo), white highlights were added using the Picket Fence Distress Marker which goes white upon application. Finally again I used the decorage corner chomper and distressed the outside of the image using Tea Dye and Vintage Photo.

I am really impressed with the finished result of this card and hope you like it too.

Tuesday, 19 June 2012

Men's cards are generally far from easy to create for me as with most card makers however, with the new sports men stamps from Stamp Addicts they have answered a much needed prayer for me. As you will see from this card, I have made for my father in law (a tad early as I then found out his birthday isnt until November lol!) I stamped the footballer image in memento black ink and coloured using an assortment of promarkers from my stash, I then added grass using distress markers in crushed olive and forest moss on a peg stamp from my craft room.

Once I had completed colouring the image I cur this out and embossed it using a spellbinder die and my cuttlebug. Before removing the die I highlighted the image using tumbled glass distress ink (to keep with the Chelsea FC theme).

I traced the outside of the die on to navy cardstock and cut this out as the mat for my main image and stuck them together using double sided tape.

I then cut some green mats from card stock, the left hand panel I embossed on the cuttlebug with an embossing folder in circles, the three individual squares were cut out, embossed and shaped with a Crop A Dile Corner Punch. The last green mat was stamped over using the grass stamp and a dot peg stamp using the forest moss and crushed olive distressed inks.

I then layered the card up as you see above using dimensional clear 3D tape for the middle blue mat and the right hand side of the character image.

To complete the card I used a round sentiment stamp with navy dye ink and created a rosette using silver ribbon.

Sunday, 17 June 2012

Below are two cards that I have made inspired by the article "Stamping for New Homes" on page 66/67 of Craft Stamper July 2012 issue. I am often inspired to create cards from the designers inspiration in this magazine and felt this particular article lent itself to the new Stamp Addicts "Dream House" stamp set. As you will see the first card below was as close as possible to that displayed in the article however, I thought it would be nice to brighten it up using this springs distress inks from Tim Holtz.

This card was made by stamping the house image off to the right handside of the card blank in black versafine ink, I then proceeded to mask off an area of approximately 2" below the house which I swiped direct to paper with Squeezed Lemonade Distress Ink, I then took the sentiment "Wishing you happiness in your new home" and stamped this randomly along the coloured panel using Peacock Feathers Distress Ink and blasted it with a heat tool to dry this before going around the outside of the panel using cut and dry foam and the Peacock Feathers Distress Ink to tie it in together. After removing the mask I then placed the sentiment and key image on to my rock a block and stamped this above the coloured panel as highlighted by the articles image again in black versafine.

I am pleased with the way this card has turned out and I am glad that by mixing the two new spring distress inks, I managed to get a green shade which infers the house is sitting on grass.

This card was made by stamping the house image in full to the top left handside of a 5 3/4" x 5 3/4" card blank using Memento Rich Cocoa with the sentiment beneath, I then adjusted the original design and masked off a 1" area to the right of the card with Eclipse tape and scrap card before swiping the area 4 times with Wild Honey Distress Ink to get a darker and more intense colour base. This was then spritzed using Tattered Angels Tiger Lily Glimmer Mist and left to dry before overstamping using Rusty Hinge and the Key image from the stamp set in rotation. Once this was completed I again blended the outside area of the coloured block with Rusty Hinge. Using my Distress Marker in Wild Honey I put a border around the white background of the house and sentiment. Finally to complete this card I stamped the key hole and embossed with Sheena Douglas's Pepper Regular WOW powder and coloured this in using Wild Honey and Rusty Hinge Distress Markers, this was then applied on the centre of the coloured panel using clear 3D tape.

I hope you like both these cards and it gives you some inspiration to make some new home cards too.

Friday, 15 June 2012

So I thought you may like to see some of my Art Journalling that I have created (without the aid of a safety net) since finishing the Introductory Class.

The first page below was inspired initially by only being a one page layout (which I hoped would be less daunting). This worked a treat, the base of the page was primed with a thin layer of gesso which was then left to air dry. On returning back to the page I painted the pale teal shade of acrylic paint using loose brush strokes to the whole of the page and dried this using a heat tool. Next I used a clear lip balm stick and applied this in horizontal strokes loosely over the whole background ensuring that I left some areas untouched. I then applied a second coat of a green acrylic paint over the top of the page ensuring that I left both white space before again drying the paint with a heat tool thoroughly. Once this had been done I could rub away the lip balm which revealed the vintage antiqued background ready for my inspiration.

I next used some magic mesh, washi tape and distress inked vintage lace to the page to add texture along with a tinted paper flower to match.

I stamped some text loosely on to the background and the inspiration word "DREAM".

Finally to complete the page I dried out a baby wipe which I then colour tinted using Tim Holt distress inks in peacock feathers and crushed olive, this was then overstamped using Archival black ink using the girl image and the highlight was added using the picket fence distress marker. I then cut around the image to remove the excess baby wipe and adhered this to the card using red tape.

This page was inspired by an amazing lady who posts on You Tube from Canada called Journal Artista and I thoroughly recommend you check out her videos if yo are keen to do Art Journalling, I can assure you that the bug once bitten will only enrich your other crafting and not detract from what projects you already have on the go.

This page was primed with white gesso and then coloured using Adirondack alcohol inks in purple and pink shades. I have a confession that when I initially done this even using Alcohol Blending Solution it was extremely garrish so I brought it down using light random strokes of gesso. Once I had the initial background I then began to move forward using the text stamp in black memento ink with the graphite shadow effect around it and using gesso with sequin waste to get the circular effect. Next I used a swirl stamp which came free with an issue of Craft Stamper magazine and stamped this randomly using Versafine ink and then went over these images with Pan Pastel in Violet Tint. I stamped the keys using a purple dye based ink pad randomly on the page and the pen knibs using Encore Silver ink.

I stamped the inspiration "The Pen is Mightier" using a dye based ink pad and alphabet stamps. Stamped the pocket watches and wings (which were outlined with fine liner for definition).

Finally for texture I applied strips of red strong tape to the page and adhered Stampendous Pearlised Mica Fragments to the page and a tinted and glitter sprayed button from Basically Bare with a purple ribbon bow. Lastly I adhered small dotted patches of heather flowersoft to the page for more texture and it was complete.

Wednesday, 13 June 2012

Continuing on from Monday's post I thought you would like to see the rest of my Art Journalling pages that I did on my introduction course with Lesley at Stamp Addicts.

The above page was inspired by the fact that the great british weather on the day of attendance was one minute glorious sunshine and the next minute heavy rain. This brought to my mind some more song lyrics (a big influence on my mood and life always) "Sunshine of a Rainy Day" so there was my initial inspiration. This time the background again gesso'd in white was painted using red, yellow and orange Neocolour II water soluble crayons (all materials again supplied at the class) and mixed together again using a wet paintbrush. I next selected a stunning sunflower napkin (which I seperated from the plain base layer) and adhered this to the bottom of the left hand page using matte gel medium, to complete the texture on this side of the page I selected and glued on a piece of weaved string ribbon and the stamped title using red dye based ink.

On the right hand side of the page I spritzed some red dylusion inks to the bottom left and top right of the page and blotted this using kitchen towel I then stamped the harlequin design to the bottom right hand side using Spiced Marmelade Distress Ink and the Tim Holtz Man with an Umbrella on the bottom left in brown dye based ink. At the top right I used a template of rainfall and went through this using embossing paste, once this had dried (with the aid of a heat gun) I then went over this with Inca Gold Wax in a copper shade to tie this in with the rest of the page and finally to complete it I added a quote "The shortest period of time lies between the minute you put some money away for a rainy day and the unexpected arrival of rain"

This was my final creation of the day, unfortunately I was unable to complete it until I got home as I just ran out of time and colouring in the intricate pattern around the border using Distress Markers took a couple of hours. I did however, manage to place the background down, this time on an ungesso'd page using the marvelous medium of Pan Pastels in a pastel yellow and blue mixed into each other across both pages. I then stamped the big poppy stamp using versamark in the two corners and went over these using a soffit application tool and the red pan pastel which pulled the image to life. To make this pop I went around the outside of both poppies using a graphite pencil using light pressure and blended it out to make a shadow using a damp paint brush. I stamped the inspirational word "Remember" in black on the right hand page as I wanted to associate the poppies with rememberance and to acknowledge the loss of my Nan who I was extremely close to and is always in my mind and heart. The second inspirational sentiment reminded me of what my Nan always inspired me to achieve and this I stamped in Red Dye Ink and again made pop using the graphite shadow method.

Finally on my return home to complete the page I added some personal journalling about my feelings for my Nan, some black Rox for texture in the centre of the poppies and some red dimensional tiles.

Again I hope you like these two pages and that they inspire you to give Art Journalling a go. There are some amazing You Tube videos to help you get started and as you can see from day 1 it can be adapted to be whatever you want it to be based on your thoughts and feelings at the time.

Monday, 11 June 2012

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog, work has been extremely busy of late and unfortunately I have not had as much spare time as I would off liked especially with the introduction of a small chihuahua puppy Drogo to our family.

I was however fortunate enough to attend an Art Journalling class at my nearby craft store Stamp Addicts with the amazingly talented Lesley. This was something that I have seen being done in Craft Stamper magazine but was always a little too afraid to dip my toe in the pool as I thought it might be too hard and require an artistic ability I did not think I had.

As I find scrapbooking a large and daunting arena, I thought that as a starting point Art Journalling may bridge the gap and as an avid diary keeper in my teenage years return to me a means of keeping those memories I hold dear in paper form.

I would like to assure you all now if I am able to do this and take on board its techniques (which can incorporate a lot of your crafty stash) then I am sure you will all get as much enjoyment out of it as I have my new hobby.

I have attached below a couple of pages which I did on my first course with Lesley:-

This was my first page and I am extremely proud of it, the background was initially coated in a thin layer of gesso using an old voucher card, once this had dried I then spritzed the background using an assortment of teal, purple and pink dylusion sprays (supplied at the group) and blotted this layer dry using a kitchen towel. I then selected a floral template and painted through this using Golden acrylic paints (supplied at the group) in both the top left and bottom right corners. Using some popping packaging I painted on this using white paint and placed this across the bottom left and top right corners. Using white embossing paste I went through a template on the bottom left hand page and top right hand page. To complete this first journal page I used pink striped washi tape in the centre top left and bottom right to add further dimension an stamped both the butterfly and inspirational words using a black ink pad.

For my next page I again primed using white gesso in a thin layer, this time however the base colours used were a yellow Faber Castell Gelato which I scribbled on to both pages mixing it with some scribbles of Red Gelato and mixing them across the page using a damp paint brush creating the background. I then spritzed using Red Dylusion inks to add some movement to the pages. Using some sequin waste I went through the waste using Red Inca Gold on the right hand page (again all materials supplied with the class) and then placed the reverse impression on the top left hand page. At this point butterflies were still prevelant in my mind and the lyrics to Dolly Parton's "Love's like a Butterfly" were going through my head, this inspired me to use some sketchbook tissue tape tinted using Orange Gelato and die cut corregated metallic hearts for texture on the page along with a grungeboard butterfly tinted using Distress Inks and the stunning stamped image of the dress makers mannequin with birds using a brown ink. To complete the page I handwrote some of the song lyrics on to page.

I shall upload further pages over the next few days and would love to hear your thoughts and comments on my new endeavour.

About Me

I have been crafting for around 5 years now. Recently extending my experiences beyond card making into both Art Journalling, Art Canvases and Mixed Media Projects.
I remain a devote of rubber stamps however and my husband has relinquished our small third bedroom into my craft room which I am beginning to kit out with all the fripperies and storage solutions a crafty gal can need.
I live in Bedfordshire with my wonderfully tolerant husband Ben, two cats and our chihuahua.
I work full time so dont get to craft as often as I would like and can hold my hands up that often I am in trouble when the washing is overflowing the basket and the housework hasnt been done as I have gone to play with my crafty stash.
I love to read, listen to music and now keep a journal to hand for all my thoughts, feelings, recipes etc;
I also love watching films and listening to music whilst crafting and it is amazing the speed time travels when you relax and enjoy your favourite hobby.
Only flaw now is whenever we go on holiday I do check out to see if there will be a craft or art store in my sites for the odd crafty purchase.